The Kind of Bad Luck That Follows
by mew-tsubaki
Summary: Oneshot, light slash. Tsukishima's mediocre day gets worse. -—Or, Tsukishima is introduced to his friend's volleyball senpai. *inspired by a post from otpprompts on tumblr; pre-Tanatsukki*


**The Kind of Bad Luck That Follows**

A Haikyuu! oneshot

by mew-tsubaki

Note: The _Haikyuu!_ characters belong to Furudate Haruichi-sensei, not to me. I've been reading too much for this pairing. Also, done for a prompt ("'I hardly know you, and our friends dragged us both to this restaurant. You gave me your seat which I thought was nice until I realized it's because of the AC. I'm now freezing and literally giving the cold shoulder.' AU") over on tumblr from otpprompts. Read, review, and enjoy!

\- ^-^3

Tsukishima Kei had had enough of Yamaguchi's shenanigans. Humoring his best friend would have to be his last good deed for the day.

"Tsukki, wipe that annoyed look off your face…," Yamaguchi moaned as they traipsed into the tiny restaurant. "I've had a long day and just wanna eat…"

"There's food in the fridge at home, I'm sure," the blond pointed out without looking up from his phone.

"Yeah, but my mother made that dish two days ago—I'm not sure if it's any good anymore," the other male said, holding up two fingers to the hostess, who quickly seated them. "Besides, as I said, I've had a long day." He paused and pursed his lips. "You'd know what I mean if you'd just try out for the team…"

Tsukishima sighed, closed his eyes, and pinched the bridge of his nose. Not this again… He wasn't even going to argue with Yamaguchi this time around. Besides, hadn't Yamaguchi heard enough already? Tsukishima had liked volleyball…once upon a time. But that had been way back when Tsukishima had had a hero, when that hero hadn't let him down, when that hero hadn't slipped up and revealed a cowardly personage.

Heroes were overrated, Tsukishima thought.

He sighed again and shook his head. "Just eat quickly," he muttered.

"My treat?" the freckled student offered.

The blond grimaced. "I'm not hungry." He blinked in the bright light overhead. "And that light's not helping. Just order some takeout instead," he griped, leaning back in his chair and shielding his eyes from the natural white light coming from the lamp as he tilted his head back.

He leaned back far enough that his chair bumped into that of the person behind him. Great. Just great. He really didn't want to get something started—"Ah, hey."

Tsukishima glanced over his shoulder. Oh, for crying out loud. It was one of those thug-looking types. Of all the times for Tsukishima to be dragged out by Yamaguchi—

"Sorry, but I overheard," the shaven-haired guy began, "and what about switching tables?" He jerked his left thumb at his friends across the table: a kid with a bleached tuft of hair in the front and another guy with hair a bit darker than Tsukishima's but squinty, shifty eyes like this thug type.

"Never mind," Tsukishima began to say.

"Ah! Senpai!" Yamaguchi babbled.

Mr. Baldy's eyes widened at seeing Yamaguchi. "Eh, Yamaguchi? This is your friend?"

Yamaguchi grinned. "Yes. Tsukishima. Tsukki, these are my senpai from the volleyball club—Tanaka-san, Nishinoya-san, and Kinoshita-san," he elaborated, with each senior waving at being mentioned.

Tsukishima, meanwhile, gave Yamaguchi his best "Do I look like I care?" expression.

Yamaguchi's grin faltered. "Ah, well… Maybe we should just do takeout instead…"

"Nonsense!" Tanaka hopped up and motioned for the other two to move, as well. "We haven't ordered yet, because we're waiting for Ennoshita and Narita. Just switch tables with us, Yamaguchi."

Yamaguchi raised his eyebrows at Tsukishima, but they switched tables anyway. Yamaguchi thanked his senpai on Tsukishima's behalf, though Tsukishima wished he hadn't done that. Worse yet, Tsukishima still ended up with Tanaka at his back. Although…at least the light in the lamp for this table was yellow and didn't hurt his eyes as much. But still.

"So you're Yamaguchi's friend, huh?" Tanaka prompted, turning his head around to face Tsukishima partially.

The blond internally sighed. He really didn't want to start a conversation with this guy. He just wanted to leave.

"You're tall, too."

Well, thank you for stating the obvious. Tsukishima rolled his eyes.

"Hey, have you thought about playing volleyball? We could use a guy like you."

Tsukishima shivered. At first he thought maybe it was from anger, because he hated people bringing up him playing volleyball or any sport. But then he tilted his head back…and spied, beyond the lamp, the air conditioning unit. Damn.

"Hello?" Tanaka prodded, facing Tsukishima fully and waving his hand in front of his face.

"Ah, senpai…," Yamaguchi intervened, "Tsukki's not into sports. Not really."

"Oh, yeah? Shame."

"…you switched seats just because of the AC, didn't you?" the blond growled lowly. He ignored Yamaguchi's snicker of delight which he caught out of the corner of his eye. Yamaguchi probably enjoyed Tsukishima bothering someone or interacting, at least, with someone else, which was a rare sight. But Tsukishima couldn't help it—he was really irritated.

Tanaka blinked at him and looked up to where Nishinoya and Kinoshita pointed. Tanaka's shoulders sagged. "Oops." He ran his hand along the back of his head and laughed at himself. "Sorry about that… Do you wanna switch back?" he suggested with an earnest smile.

Tsukishima glanced at that smile also out of the corner of his eye and suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, though he thought it vaguely amusing that someone with Tanaka's looks could smile so genuinely. He turned back to Yamaguchi. "No, I don't."

Tanaka must've done some rude gesture behind his head, because Tsukishima caught Yamaguchi giving the shaven-haired male an apologetic look. But Tsukishima figured it didn't have much to do with him, so he focused instead on his phone.

The waitress appeared, seemed confused for a moment when she realized the teens had switched their tables on their own, and took everyone's orders. The seniors fell into their own discussions behind Tsukishima, and Yamaguchi chattered away on his own in front of him. Eventually the food arrived one plate at a time, and the absent Ennoshita and Narita appeared, and everything was as it should've been from the beginning, with two separate tables keeping to themselves as if there had never been any interaction to begin with.

Still…Tsukishima shivered again. Blasted AC. He was the type of person who ran cold. Yamaguchi was always teasing him about wearing his sweater all the time, even during summer, but it wasn't as though Tsukishima could help it.

Someone tapped his shoulder. He begrudgingly turned his head.

"Hey, you can borrow this, if you like," Tanaka said simply, draping a black sports jacket over his shoulders.

Oh, _hell_ no, Tsukishima wasn't some girl who needed someone's jacket—

The guy sitting beside Tanaka rolled his eyes, which only made Tanaka laugh. "What? I'm being a good senpai, Ennoshita! Besides," he added, directing his words at Tsukishima, "just think of it instead as you helping me by keeping my jacket from slipping off the back of my chair. It kept falling anyway."

Tsukishima raised an eyebrow at him while Ennoshita mumbled, "Your jacket was fine where it w—"

But Tanaka slapped Ennoshita heartily on the back with an obvious guffaw. Ennoshita, poor guy, choked on his sandwich.

Tsukishima looked at Yamaguchi. The latter shrugged and continued eating his fries. He held up his index finger, took out his phone, and quickly typed out something messily with one hand. Tsukishima's phone pinged.

 _-dont worry abt it tanakas like that his face doesnt fit his prsnlty_

Tsukishima quirked an eyebrow at Yamaguchi now. As if the freckled guy really had to tell Tsukishima that.

Despite the seniors starting after Yamaguchi since they'd waited until their entire party had arrived, they finished first, one by one. Ennoshita left first, and Kinoshita and Narita departed shortly after. Yamaguchi finished around the same time as Tanaka and Nishinoya. Apparently that meant leaving the restaurant together.

Tsukishima handed the jacket back to Tanaka. "I didn't need it," he said by way of thanks.

Tanaka gave him a look—ah, was that an annoyed twitch by his eye?—but he surprisingly didn't bite. "You know, I thought you might be another cute kouhai like Yamaguchi," he stated.

They looked over at where Nishinoya was jumping on Yamaguchi. Tsukishima really hoped that didn't happen often, although it would help to explain why Yamaguchi was tired after every club practice.

"Anyway." Tanaka gave him a once over and shrugged. His face wasn't as harsh-looking outside in the glow of the light that spilled out from the restaurant.

Plus Tsukishima no longer felt cold. He eased up. "Nice meeting you," he mumbled with a slight nod of recognition. He started to pull his headphones out of his pocket when a choking noise in front of him caught his attention, and he looked warily at Tanaka.

And Tanaka, having the misfortune to lock eyes with him, was forced to do what he could and hide as much of his face as humanly possible with his hand. But, despite it being night, the cast-off light from the building behind them was enough to reveal that the poor guy's face was darkening. More noticeable than his face, his ears stood out like two giant red beacons. But at least he managed to tear his eyes away after one clumsy moment.

And Tsukishima forgot to plug the headphone jack into his MP3 player.

"Tsukki!" Yamaguchi called, startling the two of them. Somehow Yamaguchi and Nishinoya had already walked two blocks in the time it took Tanaka and Tsukishima to have their odd exchange.

Tsukishima decided Yamaguchi, for once, was not a distraction but a reasonable excuse, so he trotted after him. Tanaka, of course, headed in the same direction, but he joined up with Nishinoya. Not long after, the seniors split off from the first years, and Yamaguchi and Tsukishima were hustling to catch the train.

Once safely on the way home, Yamaguchi peeked at his best friend. "You sure you're all right? I didn't think you'd handle Tanaka-san so badly."

"I didn't handle him badly," Tsukishima corrected. He put his headphones on and pointedly stared at his MP3 player, trying to find the best song to tune Yamaguchi out.

"Really? Then what were you guys talking about?"

"Nothing." After a second in which his brain abandoned him, Tsukishima rushed, "But maybe I'll visit you at practice at some point." He turned away from the grin that blossomed on Yamaguchi's face and pressed play on his music player, suddenly wishing for the AC now that the back of his neck felt as though it was stuck in a sauna.

"Tsukki…your headphones aren't plugged in."

"Shut up, Yamaguchi."

\- ^-^3

 **Oops. I guess this was more pre-Tanatsukki… Ah, well. I think I might try drawing them instead, unless someone wants to give me a prompt or something? For writing or drawing. Either's fine. D8 But yeah. Blushing Tsukki at how "Sh*t, a blushing Tanaka's actually cute af" is perf in my mind. Also, bros!Tsukkiyama. XD Plus 2** **nd** **yrs. I love them. c: But pls let's have more Tanatsukki, like, now. And you just know Tsukki's gonna try out for the team now. XD**

 **Thanks for reading, and please review! Check out my other [** _ **HQ!**_ **] fics, too, if you liked this.**

 **-mew-tsubaki :]**


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